Last week Snapchat scored a deal to show highlights from the 2016 Olympic Games, setting up a dedicated channel on the app for its users in the US. And with Twitter winning a streaming deal with NFL last month, it’s clear that the world of social media and sports are coming closer together.
As our midweek Chart shows, such deals could bring clear benefits for both parties. Significant numbers of social networkers are already turning to the web to watch sports coverage or highlights, with more than two-thirds of Twitter users saying they do so each month, and figures reaching as high as 70% among Snapchatters.
Given that networks like Twitter and Facebook are already go-to points for sports discussion, and that we’ve seen rises in engagement with content-based posts on social platforms, we have to imagine that the NFL and Olympics won’t be the last global sporting leagues to enter this space.
